Going Way Too Far

Going way too far. Welcome to The Texas Take Because of You, the number one politics podcast in the great state for going on a decade now. I'm Scott Braddock and he's Jeremy Wallace. His work, of course, is always at HoustonChronicle.com and you can find the inside story on Texas politics

at quorumreport.com. Jeremy, I'm in your hometown today in San Antonio. I was invited to speak to the Texas Medical Association, so I am here at the luxurious JW Marriott Hill Country Resort. You've been here many times, I'm sure. Such a great spot. I kind of like the fact that the cell signal that your phone almost doesn't work here at all. There's good and bad to that. You know, maybe you just want to escape for a little bit. And when I was invited to speak, yesterday would have been May 8th.

And when I was invited, my first thought was May 8th. That's the worst, most intense part of the legislative session. Why would I want to leave Austin at that time? And then I thought, I think I just answered my own question. Getting out for about 12 hours actually is good for me. I can decompress a little bit.

I was out in the, they've got a great terrace area. I was having a cigar and just chilling with a drink last night. It was fantastic. But no, you know, back to work. There's no, there's not, there was a little bit of rest, not much rest for the weary.

Around here and it's the time of the legislative session Jeremy where people start to kind of let their hair down, you know, especially on the late night when the lawmakers are on the floor of the Texas House for a long... long time, and we will highlight what was the most emotional debate

of the week and maybe of the session coming up here in the show. We'll tell you about it in just a little bit. Of course, we've got a few more things that might pop off before the session's over over the course of this next three and a half weeks or so. But usually...

When the member, especially a chairman or a vice chairman, somebody who's a chair of a subcommittee, somebody who's considered a leader, usually when they address all their colleagues on the House floor, they try to be pretty formal about it, right? And say, you know, Mr. Speaker, members, let me tell you about whatever.

At this point, I'm telling you, things are getting a little looser down there on the House floor. What up, Mr. Speaker members? That's Joe Moody. He's a representative from El Paso just saying, what up, Mr. Speaker members, as he went into his commentary. And I can tell you. and this is sort of emblematic of the moment, during a debate last night,

that we're going to get into that went on for a long time. But during a debate, as time is ticking down in the legislative session, they run up against certain deadlines. And of course, people who are talking, the legislators who are talking, can only talk for so long. They can't just talk forever. They have 10 minutes to get their point across.

is the general rule of thumb. And I thought it was pretty funny when two guys who were debating each other, a Republican and a Democrat, were going at it. They basically thought, hey, we've got all the time in the world, but they really didn't. I've got all the time in the world. So do I. The gentleman's time has expired. Yeah, right. So it's getting a little loose, as I said, in the Texas House of Representatives and with the time starting to run short.

Jeremy, can you imagine this? The House and Senate are starting to go to war with each other over various things. There are either things that are just details that they need to iron out. or it is a situation where there are big things, and this is the term that we'll use, that are being held hostage. Right. And we've seen this many times before. Right. Yeah, this is like, you know, remember those good old days of the Kumbaya back in January and February? Everybody likes each other.

Well, this is when tensions start getting there, right? This is when bills are dying the longer conversations go on. I love hearing that phrase when we're in the sixth hour of a debate. Bills are literally dying the longer this speech goes on.

Absolutely. So check this out. House Judiciary Chairman Jeff Leach is getting frustrated with the Senate. He canceled a meeting that he was going to have the next day, and this was earlier in the week. He basically just canceled a meeting where the agenda for the meeting was Senate bills. And the reason he canceled the meeting is because he's getting frustrated because he thinks

that his proposal to crack down on child sex abuse that we talked about previously, he thinks it's getting into some trouble in the Senate. He thinks that senators are trying to water it down, and he's pretty upset. I've gotten indications tonight, just in the past few minutes, that... that I haven't been able to validate, but I'm working actively to validate that the Senate possibly is considering a weaker version of Trey's law, which to me, as the author of the bill, is simply unacceptable.

So members we are going to cancel tomorrow morning's committee meeting and will not be taking up those five Senate bills. We'll see if that gets back on track. But there is some progress on other things that affect Texans in a broad sense. So, for example... Here's Ways and Means Chairman in the Texas House, Morgan Meyer, announcing that a deal has been cut with the Senate.

property taxes. We have reached an agreement with the Senate as it relates to tax relief, I believe. Chairman Betancourt, they either have or are going to today. Layout a committee substitute for our business personal property tax exemption. We'll be doing that at $125,000. And then we are passing these homestead exemption bills from Senator Bentoncourt out as is, as you can tell. And with that, I just wanted to thank Lieutenant Governor, Chairman Bentoncourt, Speaker.

obviously the governor as well for for all of us working together to provide meaningful property tax relief I'm glad we got this job done so thank you Let's pause for one minute on that, Jeremy. This is important for many reasons. Number one, you're going to get a bigger homestead exemption. That's the main thing. And it's sort of a... a legacy item for Lieutenant Governor Patrick to boost that Homestead exemption. He has really been proud of having the Senate lead the charge on all of that.

over the last few legislative cycles. The other thing is that two years ago, this is what they got twisted off about, and it started all the special sessions then. Yeah, this is a huge deal. And I wrote about this in my newsletter last week about how right now, because of the way this is structured, a lot of seniors who have owned property in Texas for a while, the 65 plus people.

they already have like you know a lot of people aren't paying much in property taxes they were able to freeze those rates or you know use these exemptions to get it down and so right now you have about 45 percent of uh seniors over 65 who aren't really paying much in property taxes already

that's going to jump up to 65% because of these negotiations. Again, we're talking about homeowners. And Nathan Johnson over in the Senate, he made a really important point during the debate on all this. And he was like, just so we're clear. None of these benefits will go to people 65 and over who are renting. So those seniors who are struggling to make ends meet aren't going to get anything out of this tax bill, obviously.

and so that's kind of where this that's haves and have nots here and that's like so if you can afford a home uh you know like you're you just got a property tax cut and maybe it eliminated your school taxes yeah sure you know by this program going through but if you're a renter your rent might just keep going up. There's nothing to stop it from keeping going. The rental company might get a break.

But that doesn't mean you're going to get that break, too. There's nothing that says they're required to pass that on in the form of rent payments. So, yeah, watch for that. Absolutely. Now you have some Republicans getting more and more frustrated because time's running out and some of their priorities are not getting done. in the Texas House specifically. Representative Tony Tenderholt basically ambushed Chairman Ken King when King was talking about something completely different.

on the house floor and tinderholt had these questions house bill 4668 gives a public utility commission Chairman King, does this bill have anything to do with women's privacy? No. It doesn't have anything to do with taxpayer-funded lobbying. No. Does it have anything to do with E-Verify? No. Those three bills are being locked up in your committee and people want to see them on the floor.

Mr. Tenderholt, please confine your remarks to the bill at hand. He starts asking those questions, and then Chairman King goes, no. What? Why are you bringing that up? And there's time for them to get to some of these priorities. And, of course, there's a lot of pressure on Republican members to do certain things, Jeremy. But let's talk about one of the things that they address that is right there in the RPT, Republican Party of Texas, priorities for the legislature.

It has to do with banning certain foreigners foreigners, as we say in Texas, from buying land. And this has been an issue over the last couple of cycles. And Jeremy, we've covered this previously a year ago or so. You had so many Republicans being viciously attacked over this.

in their primaries, right? And Dade Phelan talked about it when he was addressing the question of all of the AI images that were just dispersed all over the state through TV ads and there were internet memes that were put up. All of these, I mean, all these images of Republican members of the legislature hugging or shaking hands with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, and all that.

And during that primary last year, this is one of the most potent attacks that was made on Republicans, that they're not doing enough. to cut down on foreign influence. So Chairman Cole Hefner is carrying this legislation this time around, and he's done a lot of work on this. So his committee has been working on this a lot. over the interim and when they're not in session and now during session for about the last four months.

So it's particularly interesting, and I like Cole Hefner, but it's particularly interesting that he wasn't all that prepared to answer questions about details about what's in the legislation. And this is a little painful, but if I had to be up all night listening to it, then you have to hear at least a little bit of it, dear listener and Jeremy. And you have to listen closely. to the way this plays out. And we did not alter this audio at all. There's no AI involved.

Evan, can you attest to the fact that I didn't change this at all? This is all exactly the way that it appeared on the live feed of the Texas House. Yes, sir. Yes. Yeah, okay. Didn't change it even a little bit. Here's Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu confronting Chairman Hefner. about this ban on certain immigrants being able to buy property in this state. and dealing with the actions of hostile foreign governments. And that is your intent to deal with the hostile foreign governments, correct?

It's the hostile foreign governments and those that affiliate themselves with those hostile foreign governments. What does affiliate mean? What is your definition of that in this bill? Is affiliate defined in your bill? Yes. Can you tell me where? Gracias.

Your definitions start on page two. Okay, so there was some trouble defining the word affiliated, which is a pretty important word when it comes to this legislation, the idea being that if immigrants are still affiliated with governments that are hostile to the United States, that they shouldn't be able to buy land. That's what the law would prescribe, Jeremy. So listen.

He gave him another shot at it to see if he could get it right. Is there a term that is defined in your bill that is quote affiliates, affiliated? Well, it would be, I'm looking for... Where's my questions? So, I mean, there's... Golly. Golly, I know. So then there was the question about whether somebody who has a visa allowing them to be here legally

would be banned from buying property under this proposal. Mr. Happener, I'm not sure if you understand your own bill, but you understand that the way this bill is written, while you have carved out green card holders and citizens, you have left the entire class of visa holders. This bill does not. apply to lawful permanent residence It does not. I just said that. But it does apply to visa holders, including people here who are studying.

People here are coming for work and have been here for decades, including people who are invited here under the EB-5 visa program to invest in our state. You understand that, right? To my understanding, if they are here lawfully, then this bill would not apply. You understand that your bill does not do that, right? Do you understand what your bill does? Yes. But you understand, lawyers after lawyers have looked at this and say, at most, absolutely, 100% affects visa holders.

I don't believe it does. Now, Hefner had some trouble answering these questions, as you heard. But to his credit, he was open to having a discussion about the details. And that piece of it that has to deal with the visa holders, Jeremy, was dealt with in an amendment. on the floor of the House a change that was made to the bill that was proposed by Representative Matt Shaheen, who is from Collin County.

He was grilled about his proposal to change it and allow the visa holders to buy land in Texas. He was grilled about it by our good friend, Representative Brent Money. My understanding of what we were trying to accomplish with this bill... What the Republican Party of Texas is trying to accomplish and the people who ran against me. The Republican Party of Texas should love this. No, no. There's a problem if they don't. There is a class of people that we are concerned about buying.

property in Texas. People from foreign countries. that are hostile to us right you are limiting it to only People from foreign countries who are hostile to us who are here illegally, you know It's almost like saying the quiet part out loud Jeremy so you know how you know how almost all of and listen I want to make a clear distinction here

Most of the Republicans voted for the amendment that put visa holders in a safe place about this, that they would still be able to purchase property. So the Republican Party is divided about this, so it's not all Republicans. But what I mean about saying the quiet part out loud Almost all of those people not all but almost all of them would say we just want people to come here

quote, the right way, close quote. They want people to come in legally. But money is focusing in on people who are here legally, and it's like he's coming up with some argument. to kick out people who did it quote the right way and it leaves you with this impression Leaves me with this impression that the objection that some of these folks have to people who have come into the country is not whether they are legal, quote, legal or not.

It's just that they're immigrants at all, that they don't want these people here. And so they're using what, and Democrats, and this gets really complicated real quick, right? This is a complex situation where you have Democrats saying that, and you heard Gene Wu say this, that he agrees with there being a concern about hostile foreign governments.

Right. I mean, Democrats, how long did Democrats talk about Russian interference in an election, which I think they had a good point, and that was brought up as well during this whole debate. but to use the legitimate national security concerns that we may have about people who may be here to use that to beat up on people who are here who are contributing to our society and our economy and... On top of that

Did it the way that money says they should did it quote the right way? It leaves me with the impression that they just don't want these people here at all and I'll give you this example Representative Rafael Anchia, who represents part of Dallas County, said that, look, those people who are here on visas are contributing greatly to Texas and the American economy. I raise this because we have researchers. Doctor!

PhD students. The Dallas Medical District who are subject to all of these visas they it is impossible for them to comply With this bill because they are domiciled in their country, and if it is a covered country they are domiciled there But they're living here and because this bill covers single-family homes representatives They're unable to buy homes in the United States. We know that there are people who are undocumented.

who are contributing to the Texas economy. We know that by the numbers, right? And we know that they're working in various sectors of the economy. And some of those don't have a visa or don't have permanent legal status, but do have some relief under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the DACA program that was put in place by President Obama. But the term childhood, they ought to get rid of it because those are all adults now.

And they're working and contributing. So Brent Money wants to kick those people out. And now, through this debate, he's revealing that he and other people in the Trump base of the Republican Party, they also want to kick out people who are here legally. is at the heart of this.

Even if the people do everything that they say, that these people say that they ought to do, they still don't want them here, Jeremy. And they're finding excuses to exclude them from participating in one of the greatest economies in the world, the economy of the state of Texas. Yeah, and one of the disturbing things about this, and we know like, you know, I'm going to take them at their word that their intent is to go after Chinese nationals.

who want to buy land in Texas in some sort of nefarious way, right? But the problem, and we've heard this time and again, particularly in places like Houston, where we have a huge Asian American population, right?

it's like the problem is this won't be confined to just chinese residents who deal with the impact of this bill and what i mean is that like anybody who is of asian descent you know even if you've been in this country you're gonna like get this reaction when you're trying to buy a piece of property right you could be you know

just trying to buy a home and you just happen to be like of you know japanese heritage but you have a mortgage broker who's like hey are you a legal citizen right you know it's like you know let me see your pay it's always

the unintended consequence of these bills that makes me nervous. That feeling that somebody who has been in this country for 20 30 years or maybe their whole life or maybe second generation third generation and they are still gonna have to deal with the paperwork the questions from mortgage brokers or real estate agents or whoever who have to comply with whatever these rules are right like you're making them prove that they're not

you know when did you immigrate here it's like well i've been here for like nine generations what are you talking about it's like we're such a diverse melting pot of people in houston particularly like we are all over the state but houston is just like man people from everywhere If you had to ask for extra documentation for anybody who you think might be from Asia, you're going to be in for a long day.

And that's what I think. It's not just Gene Wu bringing up this conversation. You've seen Asian American groups combine together in places like Houston to all kind of stand with each other because they understand the ramifications of this. go well beyond Chinese nationals or even people of Chinese descent. It's going to affect everybody in that community. And it's kind of a sad thing to be an American and have to be...

constantly proving that you are an American. That's what a lot of our Hispanic population deals with. Obviously when they get pulled over by some white constable and who knows where you know who just automatically might assume something that they're not legal even though they've been here for

Nine ten generations like that drives me crazy to think you can bet as American as you can be and people can question your Americanism because of your skin color It's like that's what this bill ultimately is going to allow people to question the Americaness of somebody who just looks different from

and that's the stuff that you have to be worried about when you're in a state this diverse we're not in idaho y'all it's like like we got a mix of people i don't mean to take idaho under the bus here but but but seriously like there's too much diversity in the state for us to go you know that guy doesn't look as American as I do

I was like, what? How do you know? Right, what would they know about it? And what you're saying is right to the heart of this whole thing. And it's sad to see. But as I said, you had plenty of Republicans join in and say at least they want to make sure that people who are here legally...

can purchase land, right, and purchase a home. Because a lot of this was about single-family homes and people starting, you know, their path toward being an American and living the American dream and all of that. And so here you have these Republicans doing this for the raw political reason that they've been attacked about this in their primaries, as we talked about. So here's a question.

Now that they've voted on this bill, they passed it out of the House, it's making its way through the process, and the governor will probably sign this eventually. We'll keep an eye on it. Let's just say this passes into law. Will the Republicans who were attacked about it in their primaries last year now be basically absolved and they won't be attacked about it next year? Well, of course not. Here's the thing.

even though they voted for this. The point you're making is to the societal effect of all this. Let me give you the political effect which these things interplay with each other. It's not like this conversation is over. at all. You're still going to hear about it. And remember when we told people that Greg Abbott would not be able to defeat House Republicans by attacking them about school choice?

It's always about something else that you're going to be attacked about. With this, it's going to continue to be about this. even though they voted for this bill. That doesn't matter. Representative Jonathan Stickland, a former representative, tweeted out immediately about that amendment from Matt Shaheen and said, whichever Republicans voted for this, And here, Jeremy, you can see he put up the picture of the

vote board in the house whichever republicans voted for this thing then they are going to have to answer for that in their primaries next year now why why does anybody care what a former representative has to say well he helps run a giant pack for some billionaires who have been going after republicans in their primaries for a while now and the attacks that are coming in the primary

I don't even have to look at Twitter. It was talked about on the House floor. Representative Brian Harrison and Representative Andy Hopper talked about this, whether this crackdown is going to be good enough for the Texas Republican Party and the base of the party, and of course, The answer is no. Does this bill as amended slash gutted

Does this bill fully satisfy the directions of the Republican Party of Texas as detailed in their legislative priorities for us to do this session? It does not. Of course not. Right. Even though they went through six hours of this emotional debate.

Tearing each other up. Jeremy, nothing matters. It doesn't matter at all. They're still going to be hit on this. You're going to see TV ads. You're going to hear radio ads, online digital commercials, slamming these Republicans as being those who want to shake hands. you know, with the head of China and give our land over to communists. You're going to see that. And of course their faces will be, you know, they will appear red.

the color red in their photos, you know, with the Chinese flag in front of them and all of that. Going through this whole process to pass this legislation won't change any of that that they're going to have to deal with a year from now. Yeah, and so my buddy Isaac Yu was over there covering a lot of this last night. God bless the soul of her.

Doing you know the six hours there, but but the legislation in actually also blocks not just citizens from China But also targets Russian North Korean and Iranian home purchases But also, but this to me is the part that kind of caught my attention even more so was that it gives the governor the power to add other countries to that list.

It's like, yeah, you can see how this could get out of hand really fast, right? You know, it's like, you know, as India and Pakistan are fighting, could governor decide one side deserves scrutiny that the others doesn't? And do Pakistanis get thrown into this mix or people from Afghanistan? Where else could this go? But he's going to get power under this. Whoever the governor is going to have power under this to really kind of push this.

Going too far with everything is sort of my theme here. And it's not just me saying this or Jeremy saying this. You know, they were electing the new pope this week in Rome. you know, one of the, you know, spiritual figures of the great religions in the world, right? When I think about the Republican Party in Texas, I think of one of the, you know, in its modern iteration, I think of one of the sort of spiritual leaders as being Karl Rove.

remember george bush called him what he called him the architect And the late Wayne Slater and James Moore in their book about Rove, they called him Bush's brain. Yeah. I mean, this is when they were, that was the name of the book. By the way, if people don't know it, it's one of the great books about Texas politics, Bush's brain taking the way that the Republican Party was expanded in Texas many years ago, and they took it national.

when George Bush ascended to the White House from the governor's mansion in Austin. And Rove is out there on Fox News of all places with Trey Gowdy of all people warning that Republicans are going too far on some of the things that have been their winning issues or their key issues, immigration and border security being one of them. So here you have this whole discussion about kicking out visa holders, which is ridiculous, or denying visa holders' rights

which is ridiculous. And you know this case of the guy that's been talked about for, I guess, for more than a month, two months now, whatever it is, this guy from Maryland who was kicked out of the country and sent to prison in El Salvador with no due process whatsoever. And I know there are people who have passionate opinions about that all over the place. If you could set it aside for just a second.

And just listen to one of the great minds of the Republican Party. He makes this point, Jeremy, that even on President Trump's signature issue of immigration, which he has used to great success, to become president of the United States twice. Rove points to the poll numbers and says he's losing people on this. and he's losing people

Because he's not doing it the right way. And he's going way too far. So here we have immigrants who are doing it the right way, quote unquote, and they want to deny them the ability to buy a home. Here you have Republicans, including President Trump, all the way up to the White House.

not doing it the right way. And you know what? People don't like that. Even immigration hardliners. I mean, there are some, obviously, who will say, yeah, lock them up, throw them away, whatever, throw away the key, it doesn't matter. There will be those who say that. But listen to Rove make this point. Most Americans and Texans as well are included in that.

whatsoever people are smarter than he's giving people a lot of credit he's saying people are a lot smarter than just saying hey we're gonna take a hard line on this and everybody will love it this guy from Maryland I don't know whether he's a good guy or a bad guy I don't know if he's a gang member or not But the fact is, bring him back to the United States, lay out the facts in a court of law, and get it done. It does no good to let that thing go out there for four or five weeks.

and eat away at the president's approval on immigration. Take a look at the difference between approval ratings on the border, where he is in positive territory by a good margin, and handling the issue of immigration, which includes these other things, and it's significantly less, and he's upside down.

That shows the discernment of the American people. Recognize that and deal with it by not taking things like the Marylander being sent to El Salvador and say well I don't know how we can bring him back bring him back and do it the right way and the American people will give you better credit. And I think this speaks to Trump's problems on tariffs as well, his foreign trade policy and foreign policy in general, and this immigration issue.

And I've heard from a lot of Republicans who have said even if they agree with the fundamentals of what he hopes to accomplish, they still want him to do it, quote, the right way. And I think the phrase that Roe used there that's very important and giving credit to people is saying, He talked about the discernment of the American people. They can tell if you're not doing it right. They don't like that.

And it's like this guy, Brian Harrison, who was always screaming about the rules in the Texas House. He might have some valid points, but he's not bringing it up in the right way. No one wants to listen to him because he's a jerk, right? I mean, it's not just the tone.

but it's a substance of what's being done, whether it's trade policy, immigration, whatever it is, people do want order. You know, when guys like, and I'm using the word order for a reason, when people like Trump and others talk about law and order. you know, when they've studied this. Sociologists look at this stuff, Jeremy.

And when we talk about politicians having some success with law and order, which is what Trump is, that's the point he's trying to make to people when it comes to immigration and some other things as well. The part that resonates with people isn't the law. It's the order, right? This is the same thing that we see in a place like Austin where you have had a policy on homelessness.

that when people look at it and they see these people are sleeping in the streets and defecating in the streets and it just looks all out of whack, what people are upset about is what they perceive as a lack of order. And when you have this sense that even if someone's trying to do something that you fundamentally agree with the goal, but they're not doing it in a way that is orderly, people hate that.

They don't like this chaos. And even conservative Republicans who have supported Trump are not into it. I mean, you talked to Phil Graham about this on trade policy last week. They don't like this just chaotic approach to everything. And it leads to the sense. that he is going too far. And I'm not a presidential historian by any stretch of imagination, but I am smart enough to understand the difference here between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump on this stuff.

He's pushing things even further to the right, even though he's won, and not thinking legacy overall with all American people. And I think what Reagan was able to do, he took some of these same conservative... swings, right? And then he took that and made it his advantage to win his elections, but also knew how to play to the middle of America.

the middle of the country and like win support well beyond just a corner of his party and actually expand his party and expand his legacy like so many people became reagan republicans who were democrats and independents and all this other stuff because he knew how to kind of like okay i got the space with me let me show the american people like this

rational approach. Again, y'all can fight me on Reagan policies, whatever. But certainly, he was He knew that there was an effort where you don't have to go so far right all the time to hold those people and still maybe bring the rest of the country along with you and see what you're trying to do and maybe not. Trump has that potential to do that, particularly on immigration. I think, you know, from Roe's comments, I take not so much just like a Republican weakness.

uh happening there but maybe to me more is like trump now like he won those independents in more moderate type people on this idea that he would you know you know solve the border well he's done that but he's now testing their resolve Maybe I was wrong in backing this guy. Why would you want to do that? Trump doesn't have to win another election the rest of his life, assuming he's not going to run for a third term.

you know, and violating the Constitution, all that stuff. I'll let Ted Cruz fight that one for me. Little things like the law of the land. Yeah, exactly. But he doesn't have to. He could kind of be building that middle.

you know part of the country and kind of like you're working on that element of like see y'all should really like me on all this stuff because this is the same guy who was once pro-choice who was once against guns uh or was for uh gun control sure this guy has enough elements of him that he could do some of the things that reagan did to kind of bring the middle of the country to around to his thinking but instead he's like just

He just keeps going further and further right. And when you're losing Phil Graham and Karl Rove, it's just like, what are you doing? You know, it's like... Earlier this week in the Texas Take newsletter, I had him as the down of the week because the Federal Reserve Board in Dallas had done this poll of about 350 business leaders around the community. And it gave them anonymity to talk freely.

What do they really think? Yeah, the response was terrible. Like 60% of business leaders who I'm assuming helped get Trump into the White House Or saying, this is going to hurt my business. Everything he's doing is hurting my business and my bottom line. One person even called it almost like a self-inflicted pandemic part two. This is a business leader who wanted Trump to be president, and Trump is losing those people. What a weird group of people to set fire to.

Yeah, as a Republican president, to be losing them is unbelievable. But it's interesting that some of these guys who were so key in building the Republican Party in Texas. I mean, look at the National Republican Party. There'll be a lot of great books written about that. I won't read almost any of them.

But the National Republican Party, as it is constituted today, so much of it comes from Texas, right? I mean, George H.W. Bush, and the part of Houston that he represented being sort of the cradle of the establishment Republican Party nationally. and the politics in that part, I mean, think about West U, River Oaks, on out to the west side of Houston.

The politics there still kind of represent that same ideological strain, if you will. And so we have that faction of the GOP, which is underrepresented now, certainly in the primary election. And then you have sort of the rabid... Right wing. which helped get Trump in there, which you would have thought their candidate would have been Ted Cruz, and they turned on Cruz for Trump. All these people who were doing all this work to cultivate the land for a candidate like Cruz.

had a New York developer come in and take advantage of the situation. In a lot of ways, That makes sense, because what does a developer do? They look at the lay of the land and go, here's how I can take this over and make it better, which is what he did, sort of a hostile takeover. We're talking about business leaders, a hostile takeover. of the GOP. Voucher updates and school finance updates. I think the voucher fight for the moment

is complete at the legislature. The governor got his big thing, as we said. But there's a lot of work to do on public education left to go. I mean, you've got this huge school finance proposal that's just, I will now start to use the term languishing in the Texas Senate. I'm deliberate with my language. At first I had said it was stalled because it was just sitting there and not doing anything with it. Now it's languishing.

You were at the Governor's Mansion last Saturday, just about a week ago after we had just done the show. The very next day, you go out to the Governor's Mansion downtown Austin. Set the scene for us, Jeremy. What was it like as he did his ceremonial signing? of the school choice legislation. Think of a carnival colliding with the Texas legislature. Do I have to think of that? Aren't those the same thing anyway?

The grounds reminded me of some sort of festival, right? There was music playing, you had kids running around. they were giving out free popsicles and treats to people you had billionaires chilling with you know all these politicians who helped pass this bill it was it kind of was my of course you had bunting you know it's like you know bunting all over the governor's mansion it was really to me it was

This absolute... you know greg abbott legacy victory tour to have all those people in there and he didn't say it quite like i would put it but he basically was able to say look what i got done y'all right and he had 1400 people you know at this at the governor's mansion i didn't know they could have that many people on the grounds but they were all over the place and and again they came from all over it's like you know we had jeffrey yass the billionaire from pennsylvania was there

Wait a minute, hang on. You mean the guy who gave Abbott 11 or 12 million dollars or whatever, they let him in? yeah yeah surprise well he did have a name tag that's why i saw who it was like he came through like right past me and he's wearing a name tag i'm like oh i'm not sure if i would have known jeffrey ass might just looking at him, but with his name tag, I'm like, oh yeah, it is Jeffrey Yass. And for all of those aspiring journalists out there who I know all listen to the show.

To Jeremy's credit, you got to just mill around at one of those events. You don't just go over there where the media is supposed to stand. No, walk around, report on things. If Jeremy wasn't walking around through the crowd, he never would have noticed that. And certainly the other journalists did not. Well, and not only did I get to see Jeffrey Yass, but...

Phil Graham, who we've just talked about two shows in a row. It's like three consecutive shows where Phil Graham has now been part of our programming, right? But Phil Graham was there. He showed up, and I happened to see him. Like, Phil, Senator, how are you? and so it's like it was great to kind of converse with him you know once again all of a sudden it's like Phil Graham all the time here. Don't call it a comeback. Okay, so you were there. He loves that reference. You were there.

for the big moment when abbott signed his signature piece of legislation for the year into law when i ran for re-election in 2022 i promise choice for the families of Texas. Today we deliver on that promise. Now, when Abbott says something like that, Jeremy, you know that I'm going to be like a dog on a bone. You had Abbott claiming that way, way, as you would say back in the olden days, of two years ago.

You had Abbott promising everybody on the campaign trail that he was going to pass school choice. Is that really what he wants to claim right now? Let's get back. Let's get in the way back machine. Go with me, if you will, Jeremy. Let's get in the way back machine. and go what year was it uh oh we're just talking 2022. let's go let's go way back in the in the past

and get this refresher on that campaign. It's 75 days until election day and the Texas governor's race is heating up. Both candidates now out with their first TV campaign ads. All right, now that was, I think, a very appropriate introductory ad, sort of a bio piece about ad. He's reintroducing himself to people, and he's got his wife, Cecilia, who is there describing some of the adversity that he overcame in his life.

to rise to the highest office in the state of Texas. So that was just the introductory ad. I would be unfair to say, oh, he didn't talk about vouchers during that campaign, if that's all I knew. But there were other ads, too. As they say, Jeremy, the issue ad. when he started talking about the things that are really important to Texans. So surely he brought up school vouchers in those commercials. is crushing Americans. And Biden and Beto support higher crush us even more.

Texas, we are fighting producing more energy to lower gas. and income tax in Texas. All right, so no school vouchers or school choice, education freedom in those commercials either. So, Jeremy, I'm trying to be fair here, so I was going through the whole record of the campaign.

I went all the way back to the campaign announcement speech when Abbott officially declared that he's running again to be governor. And you know he loves to go to the Rio Grande Valley. He loves being in Cameron and Hidalgo counties. And so I sat there with everything else that was going on this week. in the legislative process, all those debates that we were talking about earlier, I still took the time to sit and rewatch the entire half hour speech that he gave down in the RGV.

And I'm going to focus in and people can go watch it. I'll tweet out the link or you can find it on YouTube. Just search, you know, Abbott announces for re-election in the Rio Grande Valley. You'll find it real fast. It's on YouTube.

But I sat and listened to it. And I'm going to focus here on what he said about education. And surely in that speech, which is the kind of speech that's supposed to do what Jeremy sort of kind of kick off the campaign and frame up what the issues will be and the arguments will be surely in that speech. He talked about school choice. He must have emphasized that. I'm also running to ensure that the next generation will be equipped for the jobs of the future. To secure the workforce of the future.

we need to provide a quality education for our children. I promised to give Texas children the opportunity at a high quality early education and we delivered on that promise. I am the only governor to prioritize early education and assign it into law. I also promised to invest more in public education, and we delivered on that promise. No governor has devoted more resources to public education than I have.

In 2019, we increased public education funding by more than $5 billion per biennial. And then in 2021, we added even more. And we also promised to increase teacher pay. We delivered on that promise. We increase teacher pay by more than $1.1 billion a year. So more funding for public education, high quality pre-kindergarten programs, not a word about.

school choice there. Now here's the closest thing that he said to anything about Maybe school choice empowering parents anything like that But listen closely to the way this is phrased parents are losing a voice when it comes to their children's education and even their health care Many parents feel powerless to be able to do anything about it.

must end. I am running for governor to bolster a parents bill of rights to restore parents as the primary decision makers over their child's education and health care matters. You know, it might be one of the biggest examples, and it's not that this never happens, it's happened a few times, right? But this might be the biggest example, Jeremy, of a bait and switch in a campaign. And look, campaigns are promises.

He was talking about promising to do certain things when it came to education. He has told us for the last couple of years that he's trying to make education in Texas number one in the nation. Right. A campaign is a promise. And then when you're governing, you either make good on those promises or not. That's why when you were at that rally at the governor's mansion on Saturday, that's why he says, hey, I promised this.

Now I'm delivering. I mean, that's politics 101. You make promises in the campaign, and then you either follow through or you completely do something else, which would be the bait-and-switch thing, which on this really seems to be the case. And again, Evan, are you there? Can you hear me? Evan, when I went back and I sent you all that file footage from a couple years ago. Was any of that AI generated? Did I have you alter that at all, the things that Abbott said? No.

See, now we have to do this all the time because people will just assume that, right? As Dade Phelan said on the show last week when you heard him during that debate. People won't believe even the things that are true and just presented to them through documentation or through audio or video or whatever because of this AI technology. So no. And by the way, Evan... Would you be able to do that, to take AI and manipulate it and have Abbott say something different? I

That's not my wheelhouse. You're not even, see, Evan's not even able to do that. We don't even have any, I mean, he's the production guru, Jeremy. We don't even have anybody on staff who would know how to do that, right? So anyway, point being that this is a huge bait and switch and now Republicans own education as an issue in Texas. completely. And what I mean by that, and this is why I made the comparison to Obamacare previously,

Health care is something that people and I was here talking to doctors about this last night at the Texas Medical Association event. There are always, you know, legitimate complaints about health care, right? People will just say it sucks. I mean, you know, there are all kinds of things that people can be mad about with it and rightly so.

you know, from the way that patient care is delivered to insurance rates to everything about being in the hospital is terrible. And with education, there are always things people can complain about and there are legitimate grievances, right? And if you're the governor of Texas and you have said, hey, if you just pass my thing, which he did after that campaign was over.

He talked about this in all these rallies where he said, and Democrats have the footage of it, it's not AI. It's the governor saying, if you pass my thing,

everything will be great about public education. We're going to put it on a path to being number one. And when that doesn't happen, when there are still school closures, when we still have teacher shortages, when we still have all these problems, Democrats should just be able to say and hang it around the necks of Republicans the way that the Republicans did with Obamacare to Democrats.

in that next midterm for Obama, which was just a bloodbath for Democrats. We've had a Trump midterm coming up, and I think one of the arguments that Democrats in Texas can make is this, is to say, look, Republican leadership...

taking money away from public education and we continue to see all these problems and in your neighborhood schools when there are problems they can blame it on Abbott and they can say look he said everything would be better and now it's not You know where Abbott played the politics of this.

almost perfectly and that he didn't run on any of this during the campaign in 2022 like he made sure he did because if he had run on if you elect me I am going to put a private school voucher program in every rural community in this state. If that was his message with Beto O'Rourke as he was traveling in those areas, you can imagine how Beto O'Rourke could have used his trip to the Panhandle, which I traveled with him. He would have tied that around Abbott's neck the whole time.

and probably would have picked up some more votes. I'm not saying Beto Oreck would have won that race with that, but it certainly would have improved his chances if you had Governor Abbott legitimately campaigning on, I am going to put... private school voucher program in effect in all of the major cities that won't benefit you folks here in Dumas

at all. If he had said that, what would have happened? So he played the politics of that, right? And I might say, we don't need AI-generated supercomputers here. The listeners have you and I here. We were on the trail. We remember. The minute he said that at the podium at the mansion, my first thought was, what?

it's like all you have to say is like i've promised school choice since the last governor's election that's all he had to say and like and it wouldn't have raised any eyebrows but he clearly avoided this topic like he talked about parent empowerment and like that kind of stuff but he always did it in that in that sense of see what we learned in the pandemic and schools have gone too woke and that stuff. He did that. I'll give him the credit for bringing that up back then.

but he did not say robustly to the you know the voters if you vote for me School vouchers will be the law of the land. He did not say that. That was not his promise.

yeah it's like we know that and so it's like yeah we don't i thought for sure we're gonna have to fire up the uh the old flex capacitor and go further back in time you know to figure out but no it was literally just a couple years ago that's like i don't have to go back very far at all like everything has my memory test my memory and say when i was running against lupe valdez in 2018 i said that it's like that would make me work a little harder

It didn't take me to, like you said, it was instant. He said that, and I'm just shaking my head while he's in the middle of the sentence. I didn't even have to sit there and process it. I was already thinking, what the hell is this? By the way, since I'm on the road, I don't have my swear jar. When I get home, I will throw a couple of nickels in there.

in the jar for whatever I might have said during this particular episode. In the meantime, what is languishing in the Senate is that huge school funding package, $8 billion that has been promised. to Republicans and Democrats that it's going to flow to public education to our neighborhood schools. And the Speaker of the House, Dustin Burroughs, I'll say to his credit, he has declared throughout session that this is his top priority.

It wasn't the vouchers. It's not this other stuff. He's got other things that he's working on, of course. But he has said in multiple interviews on the record at various events and, you know, talking to journalists, he has repeatedly said, That House Bill 2, the school finance package, $8 billion for neighborhood schools, that that's the top priority of the house.

And I want to stress this, Jeremy. There are Republicans. I talked about this in multiple media interviews this week, TV, radio, and all over the place. Because I have such incredible reach. You can go back and check it. Check the record. Listen to the Chad Hastie show. Look at KV television. Look at whoever else picked it up. And there was Braddock saying this. There were a lot of Republicans. I'm repeating it here for a reason.

A lot of Republicans who were persuaded to vote for that school voucher program because there were some who were still very skeptical. But the tradeoff was they were going to get a lot more money for their neighborhood schools. Right? This is straightforward. Where is that money? It is stuck in the Senate. Speaker Burroughs told James Bodegon over at Spectrum News in Austin that he does believe that it's still going to happen, and he believes that it's going to be...

at least in the neighborhood of what was passed out of the House in broad bipartisan fashion. I believe the governor and lieutenant governor are supportive of a school finance plan. House Bill 2, in my opinion, is the most important bill of the session.

special education funding teacher pay full-day pre-k funding you know some adjustments other things like that and the thing about a school finance bill and not everybody realizes They take a little bit longer to actually get them in a place to be passed because once you actually get the language, you've got to take a look at how they affect the 1,200 different school districts in the state of Texas.

and those calculations through the formula take a little more time than everything else to kind of get through and look at and make sure you've got it right but no concerns you're confident it will pass i feel very confident He feels very confident it's going to happen. The lieutenant governor and the education chairman in the Senate, Brandon Creighton, have said that they are writing their own bill right now.

It's interesting to me they hadn't thought about it before now, that what they want to see happen for school finance is, again, the top priority of the speaker, but they're dragging their feet. They have had this legislation in the Senate's possession.

for about the last two weeks, Jeremy, at least a little bit longer. The idea that they wouldn't just be kind of spring-loaded and ready to go with their proposal tells me that what's happening is the lieutenant governor wants to see his priorities, like the ban on THC. something maybe with the Texas Lottery Commission. He wants to see bail reform moving in the House and that he's willing to, and my publisher Harvey Kronberg has said this many times,

When it comes to taking legislative hostages, and that just means taking a bill that's important to the other chamber in the House, that'd be the Senate and vice versa. When it comes to taking hostages, it's not just that Patrick is willing to do it. he actually enjoys shooting the hostages, right? And so that's the way Mr. Cromper put it. So he's a tough negotiator, and he's going to try to let, I do believe,

that Patrick is going to try to use this school finance package, which is so important to the members of the House. He's going to try to use it as leverage to get those other things that he wants. yeah that's why i thought it was such a weird decision for the house leadership to let that school choice package go so early right like now you can't use that for anything yet you know For some reason, Patrick can use this now as a hostage to negotiate for other people.

right it's like and if you if you just say look we'll give you this school choice thing but you're gonna you're gonna have to go with us you know and let the governor's office add the pressure to Patrick to get give the house what they want so we can get this bill through but you're taking that off the table once you do this school choice voucher program early in the session comparatively and so you can't use that at all that was the best

thing the House had to use to their advantage to force Patrick to do things that they wanted him to do. That's gone now. What do they have now? From a legislative chess standpoint, I'll edit that just a little bit.

what they should have done is given them their school finance package first and held the vouchers. And that would get the governor to put pressure on everybody to get everything done. And instead, now we're in this situation where I've got all these folks who support their neighborhood schools just kind of... melting down. Let's go ahead and do the up and down of the weight. All right, I'm going to have to get out of this hotel room at some point. so we're gonna we're gonna put a you know

Wrap it up in a bow for people. Put a button on it. We'll get back to the other issues as we move forward in the weeks to come, Jeremy. But right now, it's what Jeremy does in his newsletter every weekday is the up and down of the day. But on the show, he does the up and down of the week. What's the up this time, Jeremy?

Well, it could be Barbara Bush, right? She just got a stamp made for her, a postage stamp, and I always loved paying tribute to the old-timers. But I'm going to pass on that, and I'm going to go to the Texas Life Monument. What is that, you ask? Well, that is the Texas Senate voted 22 to 9 to greenlight construction of an 8-foot bronze statue on the grounds of the Texas Capitol that will celebrate the anti-abortion movement.

that they've made abortion completely legal almost every they want to put a monument a bronze statue on the grounds of the Capitol amidst all the other things. Think about the Alamo Monument. Think about the Ten Commandments monument, the three Civil War Confederate soldier monuments. We have three Confederate soldier monuments, and now we're going to put potentially a pro-life monument.

uh in the middle of all of this and quite honestly i was a little disturbed because i thought for sure that might be the spot in the future that could be the women's suffragist monument that would maybe be cool for i don't know school kids to see No, maybe not. What's the down for the week?

Down is going to be hungry kids. It's not just that I was... I worked earlier in the week at a food bank right before I went to the governor's mansion. So it was already in my head because I could see the shortage of food that was available as we were handing out. But more importantly, on a broader level, the Houston Food Bank has seen a huge drop in federally funded food shipments. It's dropped 40%.

less food you know up in amarillo same thing is happening they have bare shelves and they're kind of worried about how much food they're going to have for the needy and so these cuts are starting to kind of pile up on top of one another so it made me particularly in a very put me in a hugely weird mood on saturday when i went from a food bank in Austin that two hours later I was at the governor's mansion around all these billionaires who were elbowing

the richest politicians of our time. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, here we are, we have wealth, and on the other side of town, literally kids. in cars wondering what kind of food we were maybe giving them so they could get through the night. You were telling me that because of some of the cutbacks that even the quality of the food at the food bank is worse than it was before. And they do their, I just want to say to their credit, to their great credit. Our food banks are incredible.

doing some amazing work, doing heroic work to make sure that kids aren't starving in the wealthiest nation on the planet. It shouldn't even be a thing. But that the food is now... closer to the expiration date, and they're just trying to put anything on their plates that they can eat that's going to be good, some nutrition.

But it just gets harder and harder all the time. Check out Jeremy's newsletter. You can find the pin post on his X page. That's where the link is for the newsletter sign up. And that's Jeremy S. Wallace. on Twitter, or X, as we're now, I guess, required, they keep saying we're required to call it that now, but I still call them tweets. I still say you tweeted something on X, right? You should be a subscriber at quorumreport.com and houstonchronicle.com. And we'll see you next time.